Artifacts of Legend and Artifacts of Saga

 Gaming Ballistic, a third party publisher for DFRPG (Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game) by Steve Jackson Games has a new kickstarter.

Artifacts of Legend and Artifacts of Saga

YouTube interview

So after my last post Gaming Ballistic sent me preview copies of these two supplements. It was a courtesy to me so that I could evaluate whether or not I should reference these in my next supplement which I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't see it until I get my production copies.

First off, let me say that the production value is as awesome as I expected, The items are not just stock "extra damage" weapons or basic armor but interesting weapons, armor, and other things. Each item gives a description, art, history, abilities, and adventure seeds. None of that is a surprise as I have purchased most of Gaming Ballistics GURPS products so knew what to expect. They always deliver quality and detail.

What I was most interested about though was the bound spirit rules.  Its for DFRPG so I wasn't expecting much as thats a slimmed down version of GURPS with a lot of mechanics hidden under the hood. The rules are the same, so its all compatible but the Dungeon Fantasy RPG tends to bury the mechanics so its easier to play.

Would these new rules be just a paragraph and a random item generator?

Well it turns out they are several pages (in both books, different rules focusing on different things) and rather interesting. The rules were written by Douglas, who tweaked a few things from Thaumatology and expanded and added stuff  of his own. The published rules here are simple and easy to understand

Legendary Possessions

As the kickstarter preview tells us this is based off the Named Possession perk from GURPS Thaumatology, which I think was based off GURPS Fantasy, maybe even earlier material. However it expands and combines a few things and then provides several "powers" for items. Accuracy to help hit your foe, Adjustable so it works for different size people, etc. In fact I count 7 pages of these abilities :) Need something new and quick? Several pages for randomly generating items are also included.

I always liked those rulesd and am glad they got some fresh exposure and some updates.

Spirit Binding

This is in Artifacts of Saga and my preview copy is less far along, no bookmarks for example. So I wont give page counts. This section justifies a mention in my upcoming supplement.

It includes how to make and break these kinds of items, as well as good flavor rules for how they work.

Also some consequences for using for example demon bound items.

Douglas came up with a new GURPS Magic spell to help here.

Ley Line Motes

Making a magic item in a place of power is perhaps an uncommon trope but one I really like and there are some short rules for that here too.

Summary

If you have any interest in fantasy gaming you will get value out of these books, even if you do not play GURPS the items include enough detail that they can be readily ported into most fantasy games.

I look forward to getting my production copies!

As a RPG player and supporter I recommend buying quality new product to encourage the best producers to keep producing and giving us what we want. Their profit margins are slim and we see many fail or give up for more profitable careers. If we want quality we need to support those we like so they can survive and grow to keep giving us what we want.

You can wait and buy these things later, after they funded and from the store. But early purchases are what really drive publication.

And Gaming Ballistic does not disappoint on quality.